The Wild Side
by theblamegame
Summary: Cam isn't exactly expecting his summer to be anything fantastic. Especially not when he's just going to have to pack up at the end of it and go off to a college he doesn't even like. But then he meets Massie. And Massie has him questioning everything.
1. Chapter 1

**one**

"You have got to be _kidding_."

Derrick is angry, hands tightly gripping his plastic Dunkin Donuts cup in front of him and his shoulders hunched and eyebrows furrowed, facial features clearly signifying that he is looking at something particularly unpleasant. Cam moves to turn around, to see for himself what his best friend is so upset about, but Derrick kicks him hard in the shin and pain shoots up his leg, causing him to gasp aloud. His hands instantly reach down to grab his leg but in the process, they knock his own coffee cup over and what's left of it spills out all over the table. The only plus side to this situation is that it didn't spill onto his clothes.

Cam now has to ignore the pain in his leg, instead glaring at Derrick and pulling some napkins out of the metal holder on their table. "You fucking asshole," he mutters, carefully cleaning up the mess of coffee in front of him. "You're buying me a new one."

"Sorry," Derrick says quietly, pointedly avoiding looking past Cam "But I did you a favor. Whatever you do, don't turn around or they'll see you."

He could be talking about anybody, he acknowledges. There are plenty of people who aren't exactly on their 'people I want to run into at Dunkin Donuts' list, and this person that Derrick wants to avoid could be anyone from their high school principal to his mom.

They're currently sitting towards the back of the store, right next to a window and Cam has his back to the door and the counter. It's not exactly crowded, so whoever they're avoiding could probably very easily spot them if they were to glance around. "Who is it?" he finds himself asking, the desire to turn around and see for himself only growing.

"The Queen Bitch," Derrick tells him simply, "I don't think she's seen us. And I don't think she's going to sit down and stay. But still, just don't move to be on the safe side."

And suddenly, Cam's not very eager to turn around. There's really only one girl that Derrick uses that term to describe and that's Claire Lyons– Cam's eagerness turns quickly to anxiety and apprehension and he finds himself praying that Claire just gets her large vanilla iced coffee with skim milk and just leaves. Because conversing with Claire? Totally not something that Cam is very interested in. Not even three full months after their breakup.

"She looks fatter," Derrick offers timidly, his lips turned up into a small, unsure smile.

Despite the fact that Cam knows he's lying to make him feel better (because Claire would never let herself go and stop going to the gym every single day [even during cheerleading season]), it still helps. There's the sound of the small bell above the door of the store, signaling that somebody has just left and when Derrick relaxes, Cam knows that he can too. Derrick stands up and pulls out his wallet, mumbling something about replacing the coffee he made Cam spill over and he reaches out to playfully ruffle Cam's hair before walking towards the counter.

Derrick is a great friend, Cam concludes to himself. He sighs and pulls out his cell phone, heart sinking at the new email he finds from Temple University, expressing the college's excitement to have him in just a few short months. Needless to say, the excitement is not exactly mutual. But Derrick will be there too. And Cam will finally be away from his parent's overprotective tendencies. There's always plus sides to things; you just have to look and reason hard enough. It's easy for Cam – he's spent almost his whole life trying to figure out what they all are.

Graduation was ten days ago. It's June 21st. It's eighty-two degrees outside and Cam is stuck in the back seat of Derrick's car, squished between Kemp Hurley and Chris Plovert. The AC is on full blast but because they're stuck so close together, it's really not doing much. Kemp is practically in Cam's lap, forgetting the whole 'people need personal space' thing that he's constantly being reminded of and Chris is staring out the window, a bored expression on his face. Derrick is driving and Chris' girlfriend Dylan Marvil is in the passenger seat. She claims it's her privilege as a girl to sit in the front and not get stuck in the back and nobody was brave enough to argue.

"And see this right here?" Kemp asks loudly, leaning even closer to Cam and smacking Chris in the arm to get his attention. Once he has it, he holds out his cell phone, displaying a name and number that's not familiar to Cam, and clearly it isn't familiar to Chris, either.

"Who the fuck is Kristen?" he asks with an eye roll tacked onto the end. Chris is easily frustrated, especially when cramped in a car for twenty minutes in the middle of June. Cam has learned from experience. Five years of it.

"The girl I was just talking about!" Kemp exclaims, "Don't you listen to me!?"

Derrick raises the volume of the stereo to drown him out, and Dylan laughs and Chris just turns back to the window, leaving Cam the only one to give Kemp the time of day. So he sighs deeply, prays to God that they get to the animal shelter within the next five minutes, and offers himself as a sacrifice and lets Kemp tell him every single detail of the party he was at the night before where he hooked up with some girl named Kristen. It's not that he doesn't care exactly. It's just that Kemp tends to give too much detail when talking about these sorts of things.

"We're here!" Dylan announces, her seat belt being thrown off and the door being opened before Derrick has even stopped the car completely in a parking spot. She's out and bouncing on her toes, anxiously waiting to go inside. She's been waiting for this moment all week – the moment she'll finally be able to adopt the cat that Chris promised her for her birthday last December.

"Can you be careful for two seconds of your life?" Chris whines, getting out of the car as soon as it's stopped, and Cam finds himself able to breathe properly again now that he has extra room.

"Why the fuck are we even friends with them," he overhears Derrick mumbling and he can't help but wonder the same thing sometimes.

"I'm just so excited!" Dylan gushes, leaning into Matt's side and grinning widely.

And okay, it's sort of understandable for her to be this excited to adopt a kitten. Chris told her he'd get her one for her birthday, but Dylan's mother told her she wasn't allowed to have it until summer. So she's had to wait a little over six months to finally get her birthday gift. Excessive excitement is understandable.

If he's honest with himself, Dylan and Chris' relationship is kind of adorable. Sure it gets a little nauseating sometimes when they get overly cute and sweet but when they're normal and just hanging out, that's when you can really see how much they love each other. They got together when Chris was a sophomore and Dylan was a freshman, and now three years later, they're going to have to try the whole 'long-distance thing' while Chris is at the University of Pennsylvania and she's finishing her senior year of high school. If anyone can do it, Cam thinks it's them.

"Dude, you sure you're going to be alright?" Derrick asks him as they walk up the pathway to the Weschester Animal League. He wraps one arm around Cam's shoulders and shakes him playfully, laughing as he says, "Wouldn't want you to die because of a few cats."

Cam rolls his eyes. Just because he has a minor cat allergy doesn't mean he's going to die. "I'll be perfectly fine. Possible sneezing fit, yes, but other than that, fine."

"Yeah, okay. We'll see how that goes. Remember the first time you came over my house?"

Okay yes that was bad. They were in fifth grade and Derrick had a cat that climbed all over Cam and his eyes got all red and puffy and Derrick's mom had to give him Benadryl and it was just all around embarrassing. But he's not going to actually touch any cats in the animal shelter so really, he should be perfectly fine. Really.

It doesn't take long for Kemp and Dylan to get separated from them and go off in their own direction towards the room with the finds himself with Derrick and Chris walking through the rows of cages that house the older dogs, all of them barking loudly and jumping up against the cages. Cam feels bad for most of them, knowing not all of them are going to find a home anytime soon. People tend to go right for the puppies and skip over the older dogs. He thinks if he were ever looking into pet adoption, he'd go for an older dog.

"I would totally get this guy," Derrick says when they reach the end of the last row, staring at a golden retriever sitting at the front of the cage and wagging its tail at Derrick. "He looks friendly."

"Too bad you're going to college and you'll be living in a tiny dorm with no room for a dog. Let's keep walking and find my girlfriend and Kemp before they knock something over or set a cat loose."

"You're so grumpy."

"Fuck you. Come on."

So maybe his friends aren't exactly the most easy-going people on the planet, Cam acknowledges, following the two of them into another room, this one housing puppies under the age of one. That's where they find Dylan and Kemp, passing a small black puppy back and forth and cooing over it. And that's also where Cam sees _her_.

She's standing across the room, wearing a blue t-shirt with _Weschester Animal League_written on the back, meaning she's a volunteer. She's layering the bottom of a cage with newspaper and she's tall - not as tall as Claire was but definitely taller than Dylan and even Kemp– with dark brown hair and tight skinny jeans and everything about her makes Cam have to remind himself to breathe. It probably wouldn't be a very good idea to go passing out around hot strangers who volunteer at animal shelters.

"Guys - look out. I think I've found Fisher's next girlfriend," Kemp announces to the others, smirking as he nods towards the girl across the room. Cam blushes. It was stupid of him to get caught staring. Especially by Kemp.

"She looks familiar," Derrick says, furrowing his eyebrows. "Did she graduate from our school last year?"

Nobody else seems to recognize her, but thanks to them all staring, the girl has now noticed them and Cam is almost positive she just smirked at him. She closes up the cage she was and walks over to where a hand sanitized dispenser was placed on the wall, pressing the button and rubbing the soap into her hands before coming over to the small group of friends. Cam finds himself trying to slip between Dylan and Chris but neither of them will budge, leaving him to be the one to stand right in front.

"You guys need any help with anything?" the girl asks the group, but her eyes on Cam. "In case you didn't know already, we're actually having a sale today on adoption prices. Half price if you adopt a dog or cat that's three years or older."

"We're here to adopt a kitten," Dylan says quickly, handing the puppy in her arms over to Derrick. She grabs Chris' hand and starts pulling him in the direction on the next door, eyes meeting Cam's and giving him that look that he takes to mean 'hit on her or else'. She tends to forget that Cam isn't exactly very good at flirting with people. Getting Claire to date him was a fluke. He still has no idea how he managed that one.

Kemp follows along behind them and Derrick mumbles something about putting the puppy he has in his arm away and in typical Derrick fashion, he leaves Cam alone. Sometimes, he really wonders why he keeps Derrick around.

"So are you interested in adopting today or are you just here to offer your friend moral support in choosing the right kitten?" the girl asks, and from this close, Cam can see how brown her eyes are.

Ignoring the butterflies that seem to have suddenly taken over his stomach, Cam shrugs his shoulders in an uncaring way and responds, "I guess I'm just sort of along for the ride. I don't know very much about cats."

"Well they aren't too complicated," she laughs as she holds her hand out for him to shake. "I'm Massie, by the way."

"I'm Cam."

Massie's grip is strong and her smile widens as they shake hands, and Cam feels like his heart is going to burst out of his chest. Not only is he shaking hands with and talking to a really, _really_attractive girl, but he kind of also has the feeling that maybe Massie is sort of interested in him as well. She's not walking away or making up excuses to go into the next room, so he'll take that as a good sign. This never happens. Not even in his dreams.

"You know, even if you're not interested in adopting, you can still take them out and play with them if you wanted to. A lot of people come here just to do that."

He frowns, "Isn't that kind of…mean? To the animals, I mean."

"I agree, but I'm supposed to offer anyway in hopes that a family will come with the intention of just looking and change their minds the second they hold a dog. That's what my boss says, anyway," Massie says, reciting it as though she's been told to memorize it. She probably has, Cam realizes. "Anyway. You should probably catch up to your friends and I should probably do my job and assist them in picking out a kitten. I didn't exactly volunteer just for the chance to talk to a cute guy."

Massie grins and Cam feels his cheeks heating up and he's suddenly praying that his blush isn't too stupidly obvious.

"Although," Massie adds with a shrug of her shoulders and a smirk, "it's a definite plus."

And now Cam knows for certain that his blush is definitely more than obvious. He finds himself laughing and glancing down at the floor in a typical girly fashion and he's glad that Derrick is not standing next to him because he'd never let him live this down. "I – I should probably catch up to them – Kemp has probably let one of the cats escaped or something by now and Dylan's probably egging him on and if I don't get back to them they'll-"

"You're even cuter when you start rambling," Massie laughs, and she pushes Cam gently towards the door. "Let's go sell your friend a cat."

"Its eyes are weird…I feel like it's staring into my soul."

"Pretty sure you don't have a soul for it to stare into."

"When I say things like that, Christopher, it's always hypothetical. You should know this."

Massie's only half listening to Kemp and Chris' conversation. They're sitting right across from her in the waiting room of the Animal League, waiting for Dylan to finish filling out the paperwork for her kitten adoption. Derrick is flipping through a magazine about horses and Cam is…well he'd be lying if he said he wasn't staring at the girl he met earlier who called him cute. He totally is – but he's trying to be subtle about it. Apparently, it isn't working.

"You're staring at her ass and I really hope you're prepared to explain to her why you're doing that when she turns around and catches you," Derrick says, just loud enough for him to hear, without looking up from his magazine. "I don't think I'll be able to bail you out of that. What the hell did you two talk about that has you acting like a fifteen year old girl?"

Cam hesitates, unsure if he wants Derrick knowing exactly how embarrassing the whole thing was. But, Derrick's his best friend, and he'll probably just find out anyway. "Uh…well…she was nice..."

"And? Did she like, compliment your ass or something and that's why you're blushing like crazy?'

"No...She just. She called me cute."

Derrick slams the magazine down, staring in disbelief. "Are you kidding? She calls you cute and she has you acting like a preteen?"

"Well...yes..."

"You seriously need to get laid soon. Clearly four months is too long for you to not be in a relationship-"

"Shut up, I just think she's nice!" Cam protests, crossing his arms and turning away from Derrick. He doesn't need to be reminded of just how long he and Claire have been over. He gets that enough every time he checks Instagram and sees new pictures of Claire and her boy of the week.

Derrick sighs and wraps his arm comfortingly around Cam's shoulders. "Listen, I'm just saying - don't fall into that pattern again. You remember how fast you fell for Claire and the bitch screwed you over."

"I can look out for myself," Cam tells him, but even he knows that's kind of not very true. He sort of has a habit of getting himself into situations that he doesn't know what to do with. "It's not like I'm going to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me, or something."

"As your wingman, I will give you this advice," Derrick leans forward, looking past Cam so he can get a better look at Massie, who's standing behind the desk helping someone fill out a paper. "If she's into you, she'll give you her number before we leave. If she doesn't, then clearly it isn't mean to be. Okay?"

"But what if I see her somewhere else? Like, at the store or something? Would I say hi?"

"Don't worry about that yet; if she told you that you were cute and she seemed interested – she did seem interested, right?"

He nods, but now he's kind of second guessing it – did Massie really seem interested? Or was she just being flirty and that's just the way she is?

"Okay well then she's probably interested and she'll probably give you her number. But just chill, okay? And stop staring. You're creeping me out."

For the next half an hour, while Dylan finishes filling out the papers and waits for them to call the reference she put down to make sure she'll be a 'smart and responsible pet owner', Cam does his best to look anywhere but at Massie. It's not too hard – She disappears for fifteen minutes and when she comes back, it's with a girl and her mom who are clearly also about to start the adoption process. Cam finds himself doing some more second guessing. She hasn't looked over at him or made any eye contact with him at all since she helped Dylan pick out her cat. He can't help but feel like he took her comments the wrong way.

It's nearly two hours after they first arrived at the adoption center by the time Massie comes back to tell Dylan her adoption request went through. She smiles as she shrieks with excitement and gushes about how awesome it is to finally have the cat she's been waiting for and how awesome of a boyfriend Chris is for getting it for her and there's a lot of 'awesome' thrown around but Cam just kind of ignores it. He's far too used to it by now to even think twice about it. He watches Dylan take the small cat carrier from Massie's hands and she and Kemp are instantly talking to the kitten through the cage door and Chris is rolling his eyes and Derrick pushes on Cam's back and he takes that to mean _talk to her_. It all kind of happens too fast but Cam figures talking to her isn't a terrible idea.

"Um. So thanks for your help," he says to her, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. "My friends are kind of overwhelming."

"It's no problem," Massie responds, still smiling. She never seems to stop. "Trust me; I deal with much worse some days. Besides, I got to talk to you, so that made it easier."

Thankful that he's not blushing again, Cam feels a sudden bit of confidence come out of nowhere, and he takes advantage of it. "Good thing I came along, then. Otherwise you would have just been stuck with them."

She laughs, "Lucky me, huh? So I guess I'll see you around, then?"

"Sure," he nods, biting his lip. He hears Derrick sigh from behind him and he knows to just take this and go. Clearly, Massie's not giving him her number. "See you around."

Two in the morning comes and brings Cam nothing but regret. Why did he just leave there without getting Massie's number? Or even giving her _his_number? What was the worst that could happen? Her saying no? A lot worse has definitely happened to him before and a rejection from a girl he barely even knew would not have been so bad. He just would have to avoid that animal shelter for a while. Possibly forever. But even then – not really so bad. Now he's never going to know if she was into him or not, all because he didn't have the guts to put his heart on the line to find out.

_You could just go back tomorrow._

His brain is right but his heart is telling him that's a terrible idea. What if she thinks that's kind of creepy? What if she doesn't want to see him? What if – he hadn't thought of this until now – she has a boyfriend and is just naturally flirtatious? The chances of him getting rejected are a little too high to be comfortable. He should just leave it alone and maybe, if he's really meant to get Massie's number, he'll get it another day, or something. Like, he'll run into her at the store or on the street and everything will work out perfectly from there. He just has to leave it alone.

But of course, he won't.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning finds Cam back at the Weschester Animal League. Somehow, he managed to convince himself that this is the right idea. The thought that Massie might not be volunteering today doesn't cross Cam's mind until he's standing in front of a cage with a six month old puppy sleeping inside. This is where he met Massie yesterday. Maybe she only volunteers one or two days a week? Or maybe she volunteers Monday through Friday and keeps Saturday and Sunday to herself? Or maybe -

"What are you doing back here? Thinking about making an adoption of your own?"

Cam freezes, biting his lower lip. Okay. So she's here today. Now what? Cam didn't exactly plan out what he was going to say.

"Or, are you more interested in adopting a cat, maybe?"

When Cam finally turns around, he finds himself face to face with Massie, who's smiling at him just as she was yesterday when they first met. She's wearing a different color t-shirt today, with a pair of grey shorts and blue flip flips on her feet. Her hair is much less styled today, in a bun with her slightly covering her eyes. "You look surprised to see me," she points out with a laugh.

"Sorry," Cam apologizes, thankful again that he doesn't blush. "I um. Wasn't expecting you to be right behind me, that's all."

Massie shrugs and reaches past Cam to unlock the cage behind him. She lifts the furry black and white puppy up and out and into her arms, hands keeping a tight hold on it. "Sunshine here is my favorite puppy in this room. I'm not sure why nobody's wanted to adopt her yet but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time."

"She's pretty cute," Cam says, reaching out and scratching behind its ears. "I'd take her, but my parents would kill me if I brought a dog home."

"I've already got two dogs that I can barely handle so I can't take her either," Massie says, sounding sad about that fact. "I have a half hour break now. Wanna join me?"

Cam doesn't bother asking what exactly he's joining her for before quickly saying yes and shoving his hands into his pocket. The grin that Massie gives him tells him that coming here today was definitely the right decision.

She doesn't put the dog away, just walks towards the door and motions for Cam to follow her. And Cam does, following quickly and closely behind, all the way across the building to another set of doors. Massie holds the door open for Cam, and Cam steps inside, finding himself in one of the few penned in areas where the animals can be let loose to interact with.

"I figure since a half hour isn't enough time to go out for lunch, I usually just come over here and play with Sunshine and chill out until my presence is needed again," she explains. Putting the puppy down on the floor and quickly following it, crossing her legs underneath her and looking up at Cam. "Better than just sitting around and doing nothing, I guess."

Cam hums in agreement and sits down on the floor across from him. The puppy is pushing a small rubber ball around on the floor, clearly happy to get of her cage for a few minutes. "I would do the same thing."

"So, why'd you really come back today, if it's not to adopt a cat or dog?"

There's a hint of a knowing smile on her face. She already knows the real reason that Cam is here, she just wants to hear it from him.

So Cam shifts, doing his best to keep himself from looking too embarrassed, and opts to go with the truth. "I guess I kind of wanted to talk to you again."

And as it turns out, going with the truth was one of his better ideas, because she smiles even more. "Honestly, I wanted to talk to you again too."

It's easy to talk to Massie, Cam learns quickly. She's talkative and volunteers information about himself easily. Over the time span of fifteen minutes, Cam has learned that Massie volunteers at the shelter every day during the week from ten to two and she also works at the Sephora in the mall two or three nights a week from seven until eleven.

"I live with my best friend Alicia. We live in my parents old house about fifteen minutes from here. Leesh teaches at the Body Alive Dance Studio for extra cash. She's a great dancer," Massie says, rolling the ball across the floor for the puppy to chase.

"It must be fun, living with your best friend. I'm going to be rooming with mine at Temple once August comes around."

"Yeah I mean, we get along really well so it works. Do you know what you're going to major in yet?"

Cam nods and sighs, "Yeah, I'm going to be a business major. My dad's an accountant so he kind of wants me to go into the same sort of field eventually."

"Well...is that what you want to do?"

Cam swallows. Nobody's ever asked him that before. His parents have always just assumed that he'd follow in their footsteps, never asking Cam outright what he wanted to do. And Cam has never bothered to try to convince them otherwise. "I don't really know what else I'd do," he finally says after a few moments of silence.

She nods, "Well, you have a whole summer to really figure that out I guess."

"Yeah...yeah I guess so."

By the time Massie's break is over, Cam has learned a few things about her, including that she really loves the band Brand New and she lived in London for a couple of years after her parents went bankrupt. And the best part about the whole thing? She gives him her number.

"Text me or call me tomorrow? Maybe we can hang out, or something. I don't volunteer or work on weekends so I'll be free."

"Yeah definitely," Cam agrees, pushing his phone back into his front pocket. "I'll be around all day, so."

"Awesome. I'm glad I got to see you today. I was kicking myself for not giving you my number yesterday, if I'm honest."

And now, Cam is blushing. He feels the heat creep up his face and he knows he needs to get out of there before he embarrasses himself further. "Okay, so I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Massie nods, waving as Cam backs away.

He doesn't really want to leave, but he knows he has to. He can't be a distraction to Massie while she's working. But, as surprising as it is, he's leaving with her number in his phone and the promise of hanging out the next day.

*

"How do we know this is her real number?" Derrick asks, flinging Cam's cell phone across his mattress. It thankfully stops just before it falls over the edge. "What if she just gave you the number for the reject hotline?"

"Wow, Derrick, can you stop being so damn optimistic for Cam?" Dylan snaps, rolling her eyes. She crosses her legs and shifts in her seat in Derrick's computer chair, reaching for the cell phone. "Your negativity makes me want to drown myself sometimes."

Cam shrugs to himself, watching her push the buttons on his phone. "What are you doing?"

She smiles and pulls out her own phone, dialing a number. "Proving to your best friend that you are fully capable of getting a real number from someone."

"I never said he wasn't capable!" Derrick protests but Dylan ignores him and puts her phone on speaker.

It rings twice, before a girl picks up and Dylan grins.

_"Hello?"_

"Oh hi, I just wanted to order a pizza? For delivery?" Dylan says sweetly, adding an unnecessary southern accent on.

_"Uh...sorry but I think you have the wrong number..."_

Now, it's more than obvious to Cam that the voice belongs to Massie. He can tell, simply by the sound of his voice and that should probably be concerning. But he shakes it off.

"I do? Who is this?"

_"Um. My name's Massie, this isn't-"_

And with that, Dylan ends the call and crosses her arms over her chest. "Well there you go. Now that we've decided it's actually really Massie's number, let's figure out what to do next."

Cam sighs and falls back against Derrick's pillows. He came here right after dinner with his family and Dylan, who happens to live just across the street, joined him. He explained what he was up to earlier that afternoon and she was excited while Derrick was skeptical. Cam doesn't totally blame him - he's just looking out for his friend.

"Listen, I'm not saying Cam isn't capable of getting a girl's number. I _am_ saying that we don't know Massie from a hole in the wall. She could be a huge bitch!"

Dylan sighs dramatically, throwing her head back and staring at the ceiling. She says, "I understand that Cam is a precious, fragile little flower after the bitch Lyons broke his heart. However, I feel it's best if we let him make his own judgments about the guys he's interested in."

Cam tries to protest, "I'm not a fragile flower-"

Dylan is quick to shake her head and reach out and take his hand with a sympathetic smile. "Cam, baby, yes you are but it's okay."

"Fine," Derrick says, throwing his hands up in defeat. "I'll ignore the bad feeling I have about the guy and keep my thoughts to myself. Cam, call her tomorrow and ask her out. I guess...what do you have to lose?"

And that's exactly what Cam has been thinking since he got Massie's number. He has nothing to lose. He doesn't know her very much at all, aside from the fact that she volunteers at an animal shelter, lives with her best friend and is the nicest girl Cam's met in a long time. If it goes badly, what's the worst that could happen?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Happy New Year! Sorry for the lack of an update last week because of Christmas but lets start the year off strong with a new chapter.

**three**

"I'm sorry if this is a totally lame date - I promised my friend I would come and I felt bad ditching so..."

Cam shrugs, tightening his grip on the red solo cup in his hands and offering Massie a smile. "It's not lame! It's fun - I've never been to a college party before."

"Okay well if you feel like you wanna leave at any point just tell me and we'll ditch and get diner food or something."

Cam nods, practically melting at the warm smile Massie is giving him and the hand that's situated on his hip. If he's honest, he was originally a bit concerned about this party. When Massie called and invited him yesterday and told him about it, he wasn't really sure if he wanted to go. Derrick didn't want him to go either. _"She's just going to ditch you and go with her friends!"_ and _"That's such a lame first date! You deserve better!"_ But Dylan and Chris and Kemp disagreed and convinced Cam to give it a shot. And he's glad he did, because they've been here for an hour so far and Massie has not left Cam's side for more than a minute.

"Wanna get another drink and go sit outside?" Massie suggests, hand leaving his hip and instead moving to lace with Cam's fingers. "Their pool's open so we can put our feet in."

Massie pulls Cam through the small living room towards an even smaller kitchen. Apparently it belongs to her friend named Skye but Cam has yet to meet her. In fact, he hasn't really met anybody yet. Which is kind of concerning, because that's another one of Cam's worries about the night. What if Massie doesn't want to introduce him to anybody because she's embarrassed about being on a date with a younger guy? Or something along those lines? It would make sense – Cam totally wouldn't blame her. But still. It would sort of suck.

In the kitchen Massie gets Cam another beer. She gets a can of soda for herself. She hasn't had any alcohol since they arrived and Cam is wondering why. Does she not drink, or something? Not that that's a bad thing or whatever. He's just curious. It's a good thing to know about someone.

"Come on," Massie says softly as she pushes open the back door. She tugs on Cam's hand and pulls him out to the backyard and over towards the small in-ground pool in the corner of the yard. There are a few others outside, mostly gathered around the fire pit and sitting in lawn chairs. But Massie just sits down at the edge of the pool and motion for Cam to roll up his jeans to his knees.

"The pool's heated so it won't be that cold," Massie offers with a small smile when she sees Cam's apprehension. "Unless you're just afraid of water."

"I'm fine," Cam says quickly, sitting down beside her and fixing his jeans. "I used to be on my high school's swim team."

"Oh yeah?" Massie smiles again, eyes brighter than before. The sun's almost down but there's still just enough light to make out her facial features. "For how long?"

"Just freshman and sophomore year." Cam puts his feet in the water, watching as the water comes halfway up his calves. "My parents wanted me to help tutor freshman and that conflicted with the swim team schedule so I had to quit."

"Did you like being on the swim team?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Cam shrugs, kicking his feet back and forth, "I mean, I was good at it. The guys on the team were nice. But the tutoring looked better on my transcript so it was better off that I quit."

He glances over at Massie and finds her staring right back, head tilted to the side as if she's contemplating just what to make of Cam. Cam finds himself blushing under her stare. Finally, after a few unbearable seconds, Massie laughs and shakes her head, looking back down at her feet in the pool. "I just…how many times did you have to quit something you enjoyed just because it wouldn't look as good on a piece of paper?"

Her words are simple enough but Cam is having trouble giving her an answer. Of course he's thought about it – thought about _why_ he had to quit the swim team. Why he was never allowed to consider joining the baseball team. Why he always had to tutor other kids and take the SATs five times while his friends only took them twice. It's just always been that way – he never questioned what his parents wanted.

"It doesn't really matter anymore," Cam finally says, "High school's over and I got into college with a full scholarship and I don't even have to worry about it anymore."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Massie teases, and she wraps one arm around Cam's shoulders and pulls him in closer. "I'm just kidding. That's your business. I'm just glad you agreed to come out with me tonight. I was worried you'd hear where we'd be going and say no."

"Honestly, I was just happy you asked me."

And admittedly, Cam thought it was sort of touch and go there for a while. Sure, they'd been texting a lot over the past week since they met but Cam couldn't be sure if anything was going to come out of it. But finally he got that text. The _'how would you feel about hanging out tomorrow night?'_ text and everything started to fall into place.

"I panicked all morning trying to figure out exactly what to say. I didn't want to make it seem like it was just some lame college party and I was just bringing you so I can hook up with you or something. Cause that's not the case at all, you know? I just wanted to bring you so we could hang out and talk and stuff while I do my duty as a friend and show up here."

"Whose house is this again?"

"My friend Skye. Skye Hamilton. Her parents own the studio that Leesh teaches at."

"Oh. So you guys are close?"

"Well we're not like, great friends or anything. We're just mutual acquaintances through Alicia."

"Right," Cam nods. He really doesn't know what else to say. "Are a lot of your friends here tonight?" The house was packed with people, so Cam figures Massie's got to at least know a few of them.

"Some of them said they were going to drop by, but I haven't seen any of them yet. Leesh said she'd be by after she had dinner with her family. I'll introduce you once she makes an appearance."

Cam smiles, "Okay."

They spend an hour out by the pool, talking about nothing and everything and laughing and almost falling in the water multiple times. Cam can't help but think that this thing with Massie is going to be a good thing. He hasn't felt like this since he was dating Claire and even then, it wasn't this strong. He can only cross his fingers and hope that it goes past a first date.

Massie's friends are interesting. Not in a bad way or a good way. Just...interesting. They're a bit loud and a lot hysterical and they can drink everyone Cam knows under the table. Alicia especially.

"So you're a fresh high school graduate?" Alicia asks after she puts her beer down on the kitchen table.

They've moved inside now, once Alicia made her appearance, and have taken over the kitchen. Massie is sitting right beside him, one hand on his knee and the other clutching a bottle of water. She still has yet to drink any alcohol all night and as badly as Cam wants to question that, he keeps his mouth shut.

"I graduated a few weeks ago," Cam responds. He pushes his beer away from him and smiles at her. "It's nice to be done with it."

Alicia smirks and looks over at Massie. "Mass you like em' young huh chica?"

"Leesh," Massie warns, tightening her hand on Cam's knee, almost as if to reassure him. What she's reassuring him of is unclear. "Pretty sure you brought home a high school junior the other night. Isn't that illegal?"

She shrugs and tips her beer towards Massie. "Touche. I'm sure Cam here is much more mature than any high school graduate I know."

The boy sitting next to Cam has been quiet almost the entire time they've been sitting here. Josh, Cam thinks his name is. He laughs a bit at Alicia's statement and goes back to drinking whatever he has in his solo cup. On his other side is Alicia, and next to her is some girl named Olivia that looks a bit on the edge of passing out. Cam wouldn't be surprised if that happens within the next ten minutes.

"We should probably get going," Massie says quietly, nudging Cam gently with her shoulder. "It would be totally improper of me to keep you out too late on our first date."

Cam wants to protest because seriously – it's only eleven. Since when is eleven late? Especially on a summer night? But he keeps his mouth shut and follows Massie in standing up, leaving his beer on the table and watching the older girl say goodbye to all her friends. They say goodbye to Cam as well, being all polite and telling him how nice it was to meet him. Olivia says something along the lines of how cute he is but she was kind of really, really drunk and Cam could barely understand her. But he figures Massie got the point, because she tightened her hand around his and tugged him towards the front door, mumbling something about sluts and how you can't take them anywhere. Needless to say, Cam's confused times a million.

"You know, it's not _that_ late," Cam points out as he buckles his seatbelt in Massie's car. "I mean, we didn't have to leave yet. My parents don't care when I get home-"

"I know, I know," Massie laughs as she starts her car, reaching out her right hand and taking Cam's left. "But I like making a good first impression. Besides, I'd rather you really get to know my friends while they aren't piss drunk and can actually have a decent conversation with you. You know?"

_Not really_, is what Cam wants to say but he bites his tongue once again and just smiles and nods. Honestly, he's just really confused about everything that happened tonight. He's got mixed feelings – is Massie telling the truth about wanting to make a good impression, or does she just want to ditch Cam now so she can go back to the party and have fun? Is she regretting taking him in the first place? Nothing makes sense anymore and he's not nearly as sure about himself as he was when they were sitting out by the pool.

Cam's house is dark when they pull up outside, and that's no different from what Cam was expecting. His parents had mentioned something about a charity benefit dinner that they'd be going to so they probably won't be back for another hour or two. So Massie bringing him back this early is a total waste. But whatever, Massie doesn't seem to care that much.

She walks Cam all the way up to the front door and while Cam fumbles with his keys, he says, "So…I hope you had fun. I know parties aren't exactly ideal for first dates." And she's blushing, rubbing her arms awkwardly and waiting for Cam to meet her gaze and give a response.

"I had a lot of fun just being with you. And your friends were really nice. I had a good time," Cam nods, fingers toying with the key chain in his hands. "I hope you had fun, too. I mean, you had to leave the party early and-"

Massie's sneaky and fast, and Cam realizes she's going to have to look out for that, because before he even realizes what's happening, Massie's lips are planting a kiss right next to his own and hand is cupping his cheek and her thumb is rubbing small circles onto his skin and this is literally the perfect ending to a first date. In Cam's opinion, at least.

Massie sighs lightly and pulls back, fingers disappointingly leaving Cam's skin. "That okay?" she asks quietly, tone light and breathless. "I don't wanna overstep a boundary, or something."

"There are none," Cam is quick to say, hoping to maybe get another kiss out of this, especially since that one wasn't even a real lip-on-lip kiss. But Massie just laughs and reaches out to squeeze Cam's hand before stepping backwards down the steps.

"I'll call you in the morning?" she offers as she still walks backwards towards her car.

Cam nods and leans back against his front door. He's not sure how he landed himself in this situation – this perfect, wonderful situation with Massie Block. But however it happened, he doesn't mind at all.

*

His friends turn out to be equally as excited for him as he is for himself.

"So, whose party was it again?" Dylan asks, pushing her eggs around on her plate and drenching them in ketchup. "Skye something?"

"Skye Hamilton," Cam clarifies, "Massie graduated with her."

"Never heard of her," She shrugs, glancing over to her boyfriend. "Have you?"

Chris shakes his head. "Nope. But she was probably one of those kids who laid low and didn't really do much. I mean, we can't expect to know everyone that graduated around here."

The diner is slow for a Saturday morning, Cam notes as he sinks back into the booth cushion. He and his friends only got here about an hour ago and he figured that business would pick up, but so far the crowds have been small and the waitresses aren't very busy. He kind of would have preferred for the diner to be a bit more crowded just so there would be more noise and less of an opportunity for anybody to overhear their conversation. Just in case.

"I've never heard of him either," Derrick states. He's been grumpy and irritable all morning, ever since they picked him up at his house and none of them can figure out why. Cam figures it's just because he's totally not a morning person. Or it could be the fact that he just really hates that Cam is seeing Massie.

"And you know everyone," Kemp points out, "Because you're a stalker. I bet ten bucks you're going to go home and look up this Skye girl and find out all there is to know about her."

"I might as well, considering none of you seem the least bit concerned about who Cam is hanging out with-"

"Cam is a perfectly capable eighteen year old guy," Chris points out, "Forgive me for letting him make his own judgments about people."

Their argument goes back and forth but Cam stays way out of it. He knows Derrick is just looking out for him. He's his best friend, has been since they were babies, pretty much. He's just being protective so Cam won't take it too personally. Besides, it's nice that he has someone looking out for him. He was too naïve and carefree with Claire and that ended up in a disaster. Maybe Derrick being like this will be a good thing. It wouldn't hurt to know about the types of people that Massie hangs out with.

"If you two are done causing a scene, can we please discuss our plan of action for the second date?" Dylan interrupts, reaching out and pushing Chris back into his seat before he gets the entire group of them kicked out. "She kissed Cam – well, sort of – so therefore, we know that she's going to ask him out again."

"My only piece of advice is that you totally don't try and get her to put out until at least date number four," Kemp suggests, "Because then you won't look _that_ easy and-"

Derrick coughs loudly and interrupts again, "Don't get her to put out at all!"

"Dude he can try if he wants to."

"Do you want it to be a one night stand?!"

"You don't know that's going to happen!"

Cam sinks down in his seat. He should really learn to keep his private life to himself.


End file.
